Text File | 1990-01-28 | 6.7 KB | 85 lines | [50] Apple IIgs Word Processing (0x5445)
Readers Write
Now you, our faithful readers, can share your thoughts about software, Softdisk, the meaning of life, the mining of leaves, or anything else that comes to mind!
Hello, Remember me, ╥The Saint?╙ [The Saint wrote many reviews for the 8-bit Softdisk.] How are all you guys there? Congratulations on your continued success and I wish you all the luck in the future. I especially wish you luck with Softdisk
G-S. I subscribed to it as soon as I learned of its existence. You request a report card on it so here it is. I╒m afraid, however, on a scale from zero to five, you rate about a three.
Softdisk G-S--Issue no number [Well, World War I didn╒t have a number until there was a second one.]
SAM: This is fine. Keep it up. Why not include the SAM program
on the System disk (if it fits) and give us an adventure every
month or every other month? ╥Harry Ho╙ was pretty easy, but it
is nice to have an easy game every now and then.
Quicktime: Good, but why do we have to see all that copyright
info every time we want to see the time?
Softdisk G-S: Issue #2
Zappa Roidz: Got this on regular Softdisk, but this one is much
more fun to play.
Softdisk G-S: Issue #3
Soft Palette: Well, your ad said ╥no Shareware╙ and I understand that Soft
Palette is now under your copyright (well, I assume so) but it was
Shareware and I wonder how many of your other readers already had it, too.
[We had Earl Gehr considerably enhance Soft Palette and fix all the bugs
we could find. Shareware is sometimes buggy and dangerous.]
QuickEdit CDA: Loved this at first and thought I╒d get rid of all those
screens I created with Glen Bredon╒s Notepad CDA -- Glen╒s requires you
to type in all those pathnames and is limited to one screen. But when I
discovered QuickEdit only operated under GS/OS, I took it out of the
Desk.Accs folder. To me, a Classic Desk Accessory╒s only real advantage is
that it works with ANY Apple Program--GS/OS, ProDOS 8, DOS 3.3. . . .
General Stuff:
Jukebox: Very good. So are the songs. How about a full╨function jukebox program? It could be installed on the main directory of a disk, automatically read ALL the songs on a subdirectory or two, find the appropriate wave banks in a waves subdirectory and then display them on pages like those in the old remote jukeboxes they used to put on the walls of diners--you know, the ones with the little metal pages you could turn. Then any number of songs could be chosen for play and their names displayed on the main jukebox screen. What fun, and finally a real program for playing Music Studio songs. In any case, more songs please.
Fonts: All fonts are welcome, Print Shop GS and standard GS ones. I╒d like a GS font printer: it should print out GS fonts in total and give a sample line of ABCs in italics, outline and shadow. Seeing them on screen with font editors and viewer is
one thing, seeing them in print is quite another.
A great feature of such a font printer would be a print out that would show the hidden characters included in many fonts and how to access them. There are often many combination key characters available that are not standard. Like Option-Q for a solid apple symbol. It is easy to discover these characters with
the public domain stuff now available, but difficult to find and remember what keystrokes are necessary to get them with different fonts. A font printer could also print out reference cards for seeing how fonts look in print and how to access special characters.
Clip Art: OK, we all would like clip art, but each screen should have a theme: tools, transport, animals or whatever. It is hard to find clip art unless one prints out all of the screens. I personally, have ten 3.5" disks of clip art divided into folders on themes. The /misc folder is about to take up two disks. The more specific the screen, the better.
Next, what we need more than anything else is 640 resolution clip art. I don╒t know how much time I╒ve spent cleaning up the colors on a 640 screen that have been imported from a 320. With both HyperStudio and AppleWorks using 640 resolution screens, why not concentrate on these screens for clip art. [Er, it is 640, Ron.]
Templates: OK, reprint templates for AppleWorks 3.0 published in Softdisk but don╒t expect points unless they take special advantage of AppleWorks GS. (The hide cell lines command for instance.) [We are now publishing AWGS╨specific ones.]
Game Construction Stuff: Again OK. In the first three issues you published two, one Golf and one Arkanoid II game. I have the latter program but not the former. Actually, I have World Tour Gold which I think is quite nice too. Maybe one of these kind of things once every two or three months would be OK, but why not include a survey form for your readers asking about which programs they have that include construction options, so you know which stuff to publish. By the way, a hint you might want to pass on to your readers is that World Tour Golf does not recognize its own course files under GS/OS version 5.xx unless you rename them using the Finder.
People might like HyperStudio stacks.
In conclusion, I do welcome Softdisk G-S. I know it is a brand new publication and you are doing a very nice job with it, although it seems now more show than substance. I╒ve tried to give you an honest review you your own work. I╒m looking forward to what you have to offer in the future.
Sincerely,
Ron St. Pierre
Nada-ku, Kobe
Japan
Yes, Ron, HyperStudio stacks are conspicuously absent. Why? Because a) they are huge, and b) they can╒t run by themselves. If we blew 200K of our disk on one feature only 30% of our people can run, they╒ll get angry. Roger has promised a HyperStudio runtime module, but nothing has surfaced yet. If we received a truly outstanding stack, we╒d consider publishing it, but it would have to be something that really takes advantage of HyperStudio╒s features, so that it couldn╒t be quickly done in a small program. Why accept a stack when everyone can run a similar program? You will probably see them, but we╒re waiting for an incredible one worth the space.
About your other comments, I believe we have addressed many of your complaints with recent and upcoming issues. We╒re a young disk, we╒re learning, and we╒re getting better every day (except last Tuesday, when we slipped a bit). And, sadly, we are becoming one of the last ball games in town.
So keep us honest! Keep writing in those letters. We want to know how we╒re doing.
